Landlords shielded from liability

Landlords shielded from liability
By David Giuliani

Local landlords are no longer liable for their tenants' city utility bills as long as the proper forms are filled out beforehand.

On Wednesday, the Las Vegas City Council (New Mexico) revised its ordinances to ensure that landlords can fill out forms to shield themselves from liability. For the last several years, landlords have been liable for tenants' utility bills, which prompted the formation in 2005 of the Las Vegas Landlords Association.

Last year, city officials argued strongly for making landlords liable, saying much of the uncollected utility debt is the result of tenants failing to pay their bills. They contended that landlords — not the city — should bear the risk of tenants taking off without paying. Otherwise, they said, all other utility customers would, in effect, be subsidizing landlords' businesses.

Landlords, however, have argued that the policy is unfair because tenants are the beneficiaries of utilities and that the policy encouraged some tenants to jump from rental to rental to avoid ever paying utility bills.

Lawrence Sandoval, a spokesman for the landlords group, said Thursday the association is happy with the revised ordinances.

http://lasvegasoptic.com/articles/2006/06/09/news/news01.txt